~o:> A Hopeful Dog

First of all, may I tell you that I rode two horses today?  Chaz’ buddy, Chels, visiting from Out East didn’t want to pass up the opportunity to ride, so ride we did, all the afternoon away.  Chels and Chaz looked quite handsome on their horses and handled them well.  We rode in searing heat (the barn thermometer read over 100 degrees), then in raging winds (as the heavy, lowering clouds blew in from the north west), then under thunder (but no lightning – and during some of which, we hid in the barn), and then in the sun again.  I rode my Zi – trotting and cantering and huffing around.  Then the colt, who had been sunfishy in the early groundwork, but who settled nicely to the bit and even trotted for a while without grousing about it.  Now I am sunburned, and so are the girls, and probably Sophie’s nose.  But we are all now fat of soul and satisfied.

I don’t have any pictures of this, because you can’t actually ride a horse and take pictures of yourself while you are doing it.  If doing such a thing isn’t against the law, it should be – because pointing a lens at yourself during a trot is WAY more dangerous than texting on the freeway.  Or maybe not. But still –

Nothing like starting with a huge digression.

THE REAL POST:

Do you remember this pig?

Well, when I posted about him before, I stupidly forgot to credit Kath Dalmeny and her book World of Knitted Toys — a repository of clever pigs and kangaroos and koala patterns that are not especially Waldorfian.  Not that Kath would ever have known I’d forgotten her.  But again—still.

And from this book, I made this person also

–though not very well.

Maybe I didn’t remember to credit the designer because, by the time I am finished butchering a pattern, I feel like the result really kind of is just my own responsibility.

But for all my clumsiness with needles, I think he’s a pretty sweet guy.

Having a little roll in the grass, is he?  He is only dog #1.  I have to start dog #2, from a pattern by the truly lovely Linda, tomorrow.

And I’ll stick this in, too.  Because I was going to do a little tutorial about how to make Rhode Island Spinach pie sandwiches a la me.  But I didn’t get any further than this one picture, which is simply the sauteing of mushrooms and onions with spinach in olive oil. If you do this, do not use too much oil or you will have to pour some of it off (see the measuring cup below) while it is still spitting and scalding and you could get little pops of pain on your hands.  If you are unlucky.  All you do to finish this is throw in the meat and some sour creme and some cream cheese, spiked with red wine vinegar and liberally dusted with garlic salt – and then pepper.  Mix it up and slap it the heck on some artisan bun.  You can melt cheese of some kind over the whole thing (not over the bun) too, if you like.

But I really took the shot because I like the light over my stove, what with the nice gold tumbled marble tiles and the oily, browning mushrooms.  Yep.  Just really like it.